A 19-year-old on trial for the attempted murder of a 35-year-old gay man on Chester’s historic City Walls has denied he is homophobic.

Floyd Evans, of Linenhall Mews, Stanley Street, Chester, is charged with the attempted murder and wounding with intent of Francisco Nascimento, who was stabbed in the chest at the top of the steps to the City Walls behind Iceland’s car park in Frodsham Street on October 21 last year.

Evans was arrested on November 11 after PC Lisa Smith, who had encountered him before, identified him from CCTV footage.

The court was told Mr Nascimento identified Evans as his attacker during an identity parade on November 12.

Defending, Peter Moss asked Evans what he thought about the possibility that it was a homophobic attack.

Evans said: “I have no views on that. Everybody is equal. It’s their choice.”

The jury was also told of a 999 call made by Evans less than a year before the incident, in which he threatened to stab police officers and set them alight.

When asked by Mr Moss why he did that, Evans said he’d had an argument with his brother about living arrangements and thought it would be easier to get himself arrested and find a bed that way by making ‘empty threats’.

Mr Nascimento, who moved to Chester from Brazil nine years ago, told Chester Crown Court he had gone to Tesco on Frodsham Street to do some shopping and walked to the City Walls where he bumped into his friend Gareth Davies.

The two had been chatting for about 40 minutes when Mr Nascimento said a ‘strange person turned up’ and went down the stairs where he stopped for a few minutes before turning round and coming back up the steps.

Mr Nascimento said this was a signal commonly used by gay men at the spot which he also said was a popular meeting place for gay men.

Mr Nascimento said he thought the man, who he described as small and ‘very young’, was about to walk away when he struck him in the chest, near his heart.

Mr Nascimento, who spent time in intensive care following the incident, said: “I am recovering slowly but mentally I am struggling still.”

The court heard that Evans, who had recently secured a job with Cheshire West and Chester Council’s highways team, had been drinking on the night of October 21 and had taken cocaine in the toilets of a pub.

Evans said cocaine makes him ‘stupid not aggressive’.

He said he could not remember anything between going into Tesco in Frodsham Street that night and waking up the next day.

Prosecuting, John Phillpotts asked Evans how he could be sure he hadn’t stabbed anyone if he couldn’t remember the night.

Evans said: “Because that is a big thing and I am sure I would know if I had stabbed someone. Personally, I never would.”

The trial continues.